Persistent procedural hurdles created by one country: India

Tashkent: With NSG rejecting its membership bid, an upset India today said one country persistently created procedural "hurdles" during the discussions on its application in the 48-nation grouping, in a clear reference to stiff Chinese opposition.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also asserted that India's participation in the NSG would have furth strengthened nuclear non-proliferation regime and made global nuclear commerce more secure.

NSG, at the end of its two-day plenary in Seoul, declared its "firm support" for the "full, complete and effective" implementation of the NPT as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime, ruling out any exception to India. However, India maintained that there was no contradiction between the NPT and India's closer engagement with with the NSG.

"We understand that despite procedural hurdles persistently raised by one country, a three-hour-long discussion took place last night on the issue of future participation in the NSG," Swarup said here.

"The NSG plenary in Seoul earlier in the day decided against granting India membership of the grouping immediately and said it will continue to have discussions on participation of countries which have not signed the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"An overwhelming number of those who took the floor supported India's membership and appraised India's application positively. We thank each and every one of them. It is also our understanding that the broad sentiment was to take this matter forward," he said.

Swarup is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's delegation which is here to attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.